It mostly happens when I ride clockwise direction: Jemma tends to cut the corners and migrate to the center of the ring on canter. One trainer I tried suggested every time she does it ride a small circle, but frankly it doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I try to use my inner leg on my best to push her back on rail, but it doesn't seem to work all that well. Any suggestions?

It certainly sounds like she's dropping her inside shoulder. Does her tack fit? Are you fluid in your body, weight back, staying out of her way? Sometimes riders will have a tendency to tip forward going into corners, like their head becomes heavier than their butt! Lol. Also, make sure she is calm when you're riding. If she is tense and bracy then I would suspect a confidence issue.

If you can rule out all those kinds of things, you can try this. If she wants to go to the middle, let her.....but do A BUNCH of stuff in the center and STOP ON THE RAIL. Get her sweet to the rail. Do a bunch of "follow the rail" type patterns, at w/t/c but only after the previous gait is consistant. Let her rest in the corners to create incentive to keep going where you want her to go.

Sounds like she's not respecting your leg, plain and simple. Before you canter, leg yield her several times in that direction. If you ask her to move over with your inside leg, she MUST move over. If she doesn't listen to your light aid, give her a solid thump. If she still refuses, tap her behind your leg with your crop. Continue escalating until she moves off your leg. Once you've got it on a straight line, ride spiral out using the same concept. She needs to understand that she is not to lean on your inside leg. Use as much correction as you need to get the job done and then go back and ask again with light aids. Once she's listening to that leg, then move onto cantering.

Tack fits, however she's VERY heavy on forehead. I try to lighten her up before moving to canter (that's what I'm working on all hour I ride her actually ), but she still feels very heavy when we move to the canter. I do agree may be I start to lean toward too: I try to control myself, but not always all that lucky. I DO take lessons, but it's just once a week, and usually I ride better during the lesson. May be it's something mental... Lol!

MyBoyPuck, I CAN move her to the rail on walk and trot (bend to the inside and make her go on rail with inner leg). It's a canter which brings so many problems (and I certainly have less coordination on canter too - heh, I'm honest :) ).

We just started cantering recently, and it was so much fun in the beginning and SO much improvements, but now somehow all improvements stopped and she's getting worse. She's pretty heavy to even start cantering now (and no, it's not the health or tack, looks like she's just lazy and don't want to work). Should I start encourage her with the crop behind my leg? I really hate to do so, but she doesn't seem to respect my leg for transitions at all anymore.

You could start to incorporate ground poles to help her lift her feet. It is possible she is bored, especially if you do the same thing each time you ride. So do other stuff, too, like trail riding and Freestyle riding. If her mind isn't in it, her body won't be in it.

You could start to incorporate ground poles to help her lift her feet. It is possible she is bored, especially if you do the same thing each time you ride. So do other stuff, too, like trail riding and Freestyle riding. If her mind isn't in it, her body won't be in it.

Spirit, I do use poles too every time I ride. :) But you may be right - she's getting bored with it. Usually after 2-3 days break she's much more responsive. I do trail ride, but with all this horrible weather this year it's much less then last year so the ring is the only option.

Just wondering how all those dressage horses not getting bored then? They do basically the same thing over and over...

Uhg, I know, the weather here is AWEFUL! And I don't have access to an indoor arena so it REALLY stinks! *sigh* It is going to get up to 67 degrees by the weekend I believe, so maybe there is still hope for a fall! Lol.

Just from my personal experience, with the dressage friends I have (who have "lazy" horses to boot), if their horse gets bored, thus lacking impulsion and drive, they get out a whip or they strap on some spurs to MAKE them go forward. Now I know that's not how all people are, let me make that very clear! And some horses truly do love learning dressage. However dressage, for a lot of horses, is pointless in their minds because it uses consistent patterns and doesn't offer a lot of variety which makes horses, like my guy, wanna shoot themselves lol! They NEED variety and if we just do the same thing, day after day, we can't blame them for getting bored. So it's up to us to 1) make our horse's lives interesting and fun and 2) to play in a way that allows the horse to find that "sweet spot" while working on dressage that makes working on it MEANINGFUL. Dressage, done right, feels good to the horse, but they don't know that until we help them find that spot of balance. With my guy, working on Finesse riding is becoming more meaningful and fun for him because I'm helping him see that even if I have contact on the reins, he can still access this spot of balance and it feels good....but I make darn sure I don't drill it and work on it every time, otherwise he gets bored VERY quickly and then I lose his positive attitude and any impulsion I had.

I have just outdoor too, but at least with the stonedust it's not muddy (while trails seem to be muddy all this summer). We have drop to low 40th this week. With average weather this time of year to be 69 it's REALLY cold.

Lol sorry, Finesse riding is Parelli's term for riding with contact and concentrated reins.

It's been in the 30's here.....I don't get it! And now it's raining plus being cold and windy. My horse is NOT happy! Lol. I went out to feed last night and it was raining, windy and freezing! And he had his ears back, butt to the wind like "Man mom this sucks!" He hates yucky weather, he gets cranky lol.

Make sure your outside rein is low (to prevent her popping her shoulder) and slightly AWAY from the shoulder/neck then ride the circle (BEFORE she starts cutting in) using your inside LEG to outside rein. Also be careful you don't lean forward OR inside but remain sitting equally on BOTH seatbones.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Horse Forum forums, you must first register.

Already have a Horse Forum account?
Members are allowed only one account per person at the Horse Forum, so if you've made an account here in the past you'll need to continue using that account. Please do not create a new account or you may lose access to the Horse Forum. If you need help recovering your existing account, please Contact Us. We'll be glad to help!

New to the Horse Forum?Please choose a username you will be satisfied with using for the duration of your membership at the Horse Forum. We do not change members' usernames upon request because that would make it difficult for everyone to keep track of who is who on the forum. For that reason, please do not incorporate your horse's name into your username so that you are not stuck with a username related to a horse you may no longer have some day, or use any other username you may no longer identify with or care for in the future.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Old Thread Warning

This thread is more than 90 days old. When a thread is this old, it is often better to start a new thread rather than post to it. However, If you feel you have something of value to add to this particular thread, you can do so by checking the box below before submitting your post.I am aware that this is an old thread and I want to revive it rather than starting a new thread.